I noticed this site today, www.interectory.co.uk it is new as of 17 May 07. This guy is trying to steal my website name. I have worked my directory for several years now. It is still a work in process. I have spent a few bucks, some would say too much, on promotion and will be installing a new skin soon. This guys site is a PR-0, and is trading off my copyrighted name. What if any thing can I do about it? My 3 year old site is: www.interectory.com
Sadly, not a lot - standard rule of thumb when registering domains is take the big three if available - .com, .co.uk & .net
Agree with that If the guy was trying to copy your design you would have had a passing off case, but it seems that he is doing a blog from his domain. Imagine how many extensions are...maybe the guy just liked the name a lot
Did you register the trademark? If so you may have a case, but not sure if it's worth taking someone to court over it.
I myself would contact him and in not so many words ask him to please consider selling the Domain for a small fee do to your oversite as its to close to yours. If you come across wrong then many times they will struggle and fight so sometimes best to try a little sugar before spreading salt to achieve success. though i would consider some mega backlink building to prevent his site from ever reaching top ten stats ... and if that dont work then thiers always other ways to skin a fish ... Regardless i wish you success thx malcolm
The owner of directorymx.com stole my name well to catch all the typo traffic mine is directorymix.com
1. Do you actually have it Trademarked or ServiceMarked? 2. If it is TM'd/SM'd - is it only in the US and is this person in the US or the UK 3. Can you prove he/she registered this name for similar purposes as your TM/SM and/or can you prove with justification that by this person registering the DN that he/she did so to cause harm, loss of revenue, or other detrimental purposes to you and or your TM/SM? These are some key factors. If you do have your DN TM'd/SM'd, that does not guarantee 100% that you have absolute right to the DN he has registered nor would it prevent anyone from registering the name. I have been through this legal process twice in the last three years. Both on the receiving end of Cease and Decist orders from lawyers representing unscrupulous people. Both times I won and both times it cost the other party some $. If you are serious about this, you have a couple of recourses. 1.) Take legal action yourself with a lawyer and send the C&S as a first response. 2.) Go through the WIPO process but be prepared for a long drawn out ordeal and the last time I did this...it cost $1500. Just FYI...for what it's worth and hope this helps. tom